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"I spoke to one of them shortly after," Vllavarayen said. They didn't see anything but heard gunshots. They were at the ground and just started running. The coaching staff were all at the hotel." The team is reported to have left the bus and fled on foot to nearly Hagley Oval where it is due to play New Zealand in a test match starting on Saturday.

Mohammad Isam, a journalist traveling with the Bangladesh team, said he believed the players wish to leave New Zealand as soon as possible.

"I don't they're in a mental state to play cricket at all," he told Fairfax Media. "I think they want to go back home as soon as possible. I'm speaking from experience, I'm speaking from what I've heard." Isam said he was contacted by one of the players as the shooting was taking place and he raced towards the scene.

"It was very traumatic there and people were running out from that mosque presumably and the Bangladesh players were coming out," he said.

"They are in terrible and severe mental (distress), they're not feeling well.

"They were just outside the mosque about to get off from the bus and go into the mosque when they heard shooting and a lot of people running out and they saw someone wounded in front of them.

"And seeing that, they didn't get off the bus. About 10 minutes later they ran out of the bus and ran through Hagley Park and into the Hagley Oval.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)